home
by bobbingformangos
Summary: they find their home.


She was starting to take down the stones from the walls in her heart. No one else was because she couldn't become dependent on them, but thenagain, Emma Swan wouldn't want her to be dependent. No, the blonde believed in partnership and an attempt at a healthy relationship instead of acodependency that would eventually cause them to fall apart in the end instead of leave them standing tall.

So, with support and encouragement, Regina began to slowly take down the stones from the walls in her heart and slowly, the darkness went awaytoo.

They say that you shouldn't tell a child "good job" and "you make me so proud" and Regina was starting to understand that. That it creates adependency on others instead of learning to build yourself up and love yourself and to be proud of yourself - so she was learning all of that over aswas Emma.

They were learning it at the same time and learning how to encourage each other instead of praise the other and it was healthy and beautiful andcreated this sense of personhood that both women needed.

They learned to lean on the other but also to stand on their own two feet and they felt that they were finally growing roots instead of placingthemselves in water until the next time they had to move to another home.

Two broken women finally blooming into two strong women who could love with open hearts and without fears.

It was hard, yes.

They had to take down the walls in their hearts. The walls that they spent years and years building to keep themselves safe. And it wasn't somethingthat happened overnight.

No.

Regina delicately took down the stones in her heart each time she walked into Dr. Hopper's office or she tended to her apple tree or found that sheenjoyed painting on canvas or accepted that she couldn't force people to love her or that she could clutch on or when she learned to forgive or thattime that she cried in front of a group of people but didn't puff away. She took a stone down in tiny moments like these as well as when she letEmma hold her and wipe away her tears or when they talked about their shitty issues instead of run away from each other.

She was slow in the deconstruction of her walls but she was steady and it was beautiful.

At some point along the way Regina learned to love herself and to open her heart and to be herself instead of the product of what was done to her.

It was beautiful and healthy.

And then there was Emma who was less graceful at the deconstruction of her walls but she did it nonetheless and she was fucking proud of herselffor each hole of sunlight that came peeking into her heart.

She talked about her feelings instead of run from them. She found love in a woman who was her enemy and learned to trust her. She feltcomfortable in being a mother. And Emma Swan talked about her feelings to a set of parents who gave her up as a baby without realizing that theiractions saved an entire kingdom but nearly killed a little girl who only dreamed of someone to love and protect her. They truly understood and shetruly spoke and a huge part of her walls were demolished in a matter of moments.

And she kept on talking and she kept on staying and Emma found herself one day walking along the pier, by herself, and found that she was able tohave her independence and her love and her family and wouldn't be smothered or sent away and it was so fucking beautiful.

Emma Swan found home, finally, after years of never having one.

She found home in a son who kissed her cheek every morning before running off to school.

She found home to a mother who would caress her cheek when they took an afternoon walk at the park, just them, together.

She found home in a father who spent time to show her how to take care of animals or took both of his children out into the field and told themstories of his mother, who sacrificed herself so that Emma could be born.

She found home in a town that wrapped their arms around her and showed her what family and community was while still leaving her space to growher roots deeper and to water herself and to understand that she was still taking down her walls - learning different ways to deconstruct them.

And Regina and Emma both found a home in each other.

They were understanding of each other and knew that sometimes taking an afternoon apart - one painting and another running along the beach -before coming back together to talk about whatever had fucked them up in the first place.

After a while their roots were firm and steady and healthy and strong and then, one day as they were curled together in bed with a teenage son downthe hall, their roots began to weave themselves together.

It started when Emma left clothes at the mansion and Regina took more drives in the passenger seat of Emma's beetle. Then it went to more familydinners as official couples and more magical studies where they tested different ways that they magic could combine. And finally, it went to amoment that Regina proposed to Emma on the beach that brought her solitude, romantic with the flickering stars and Emma knew that if Reginacould see that yes, Emma Swan, did want to settle down and be proposed to, then it was time.

Emma said yes and Regina had kissed her and because it was them, they fucked right there on the beach under the stars and learned that theirmagic curled together in more ways into one.

And eventually, one day, when the two women were void of walls and woven together and happy in the rain and sunshine of the small sleepy town,they grew their family. Henry became a brother in the Spring, a sister, and then again the following Winter, twin brothers, and finally, a few yearslater, another sister.

And when people looked at the Swan Mills family, walking together around the lake at the park, they wouldn't have thought about the hell that theyhad to climb out to get to where they were.

Their home, happy together.

Their happy ending.


End file.
